Young Packers continue to get younger

Green Bay --- None of this should come as a surprise. But heading into the off-season, Green Bay boasts a very young roster. Regardless of what happens in free agency, Ted Thompson will be counting on young players making a jump. That's how he's done business since taking over in 2005. »Read Full Blog Post

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Mel, Woodson isn't that DPOY and HOF-caliber player anymore though. Too many fans live in the past. Hayward isn't being compared to Woodson of a few years ago. He's being compared to Woodson now.

Woodson was great because he made game changing plays at CB. His free style allowed him to be great. Once he lost a step and couldn't cover adequately anymore at CB and they had to move him to safety, he couldn't freelance as much and his greatest strength was smothered.

As an overall player, Hayward isn't at Woodson's level but as a slot CB; there probably isn't a team in the league that would take Woodson over Hayward. Look at Haywards stats this season. Unbelievable. And he dropped another like 5 picks that he'll probably catch in the future.

.. and I guess I don't look at it as Woodson, as of today, may be finished. I look at it like, that void can't be filled. Same with Clifton, and Collins. Less so with Jenkins and Wells.

Bottom line for me: this team peaked in 2010-2011, and is clearly not the same as of today.

Yes, time ended the careers of Cliffy and Wood. I don't hold that against Thompson or anyone. But this team is not better than it was a few years ago, and it looks like the mountain is just getting harder to climb.

The Scotty, Jenks, and St. Nick replacements were not better...the rest were in my opinion...Cliffy, Drive and Sir Charles all had appointments with father time...Lang is an improvement over Colledge...a bit better at guard and can play T in a pinch...Colledge can't.

I would say that Cobb, Lang, Hayward and even Newhouse have all been better. There's only a small chance that each of them will have a better career than the players that they're replacing; but they each performed better than Driver, Colledge, Woodson and Clifton performed (or would have performed) last year.

Newhouse might not start next year, but Clifton just couldn't move anymore. Newhouse was an upgrade from the old and injured Clifton, but he certainly isn't an upgrade from Clifton in his prime.

Regardless of who you think is better than whom at these spots, the bottom line is that time marches on. It would be completely irresponsible for TT and company to just re-sign all of their players. Colledge was everybody's whipping boy when I first started monitoring this blog and with good reason. Jenkins never stayed healthy and that trend has continued in his 2 years in Philly Wells underwent 2 surgeries last year. Clifton played on balky knees the last 4 years and was clearly done. Woodson's freelancing was tolerated as long as he was productive but he gave up a lot of big plays esecially the last 2 years.

The only guy who would likely still be playing with GB in 2014-15 is Collins.

You can argue whether or not the people TT has drafted are better players or not, but all those players (aside from Collins) were older/descendin players in a young person's game and had to be replaced. Let's just hope that TT's recent drafts pan out in the long run.

I agree. Let's not forget that the biggest loss of all, Collins, could not continue because of injury. How could TT have foreseen that? How would last season's secondary have looked had Collins been able to play? And please, can we stop pining for Cullen Jenkins? He was not the reason a 15-1 team (all done without him ever on the field) did not advance in the playoffs. He was also not the reason the Packers did not advance this year.

I don't understand why people are making Nick Collins comparisons. Ted Thompson didn't "let him go". Collins suffered a career ending injury and no other team is willing to sign him either. How many teams could replace a top 5 player at his position in his prime right away? Not a whole lot.

If Collins never got hurt, this Packer team might have been in another Super Bowl. Collins and Burnett would also be one of the best safety tandums in the league. Not having Collins and Bishop this past season were the two primary reasons the Packers weren't Super Bowl bound again and there's nothing Thompson could do about either.

I don't understand why everybody thinks Hawk will be gone. He won't be.

1. He doesn't miss games. If they dump him their ILB corps consists of 2 guys coming off major injuries and unproven 2nd and 3rd year players.2. They don't save that much cap room by cutting him. If they cut him now they save about $1.5 million. If they cut him after June 1, they end up with $3.2 million of dead money on next year's cap. I don't see either scenario happening.

I don't mind Hawk's solid yet very unspectacular play, especially next to a playmaker like Bishop, but I would definitely be interested in bringing Barnett back at a bargain price.

I still think Terrell Manning is someone to watch but if you can add Barnett on the cheap; Capers could also then move around Bishop. Bishop is a very nice pass rusher. Capers could send him over to a side with CMIII and reak havoc.

You don't understand why everyone thinks Hawk will be gone? Because he stinks, that's why. It appears there are a number of people on these boards who would agree with this, , don't know what games others are watching. AJ is slow, has no instinct for the game, no lateral quickness, gets engulfed by blockers, gets run over by running backs, blown up by fullbacks, can't cover, can't get any pressure on the QB, shall I go on? Cap space or no, at some point you have to deliver on the field. When you fail to do that (READ: No turnover caused plays in 2 years) r=then you should be a goner, 5th pick in the draft or not.

Why are there a handful of posters on here who every time they see the name of a player who they don't like, their eyes get bright and they can't wait to just spew venom about them. I don't understand the personality trait. Get a life.

Every time I see Hawk mentioned, I'm just waiting for estus and his full paragraph on Hawk sucks at life. Get over it.

AJ is by all accounts a nice person - gives it his all, etc.... however the bottom line, as they say, is that is is significantly overpaid for his production. And, if GB waits till June 1 I believe to cut him, they save 5.25 mil cap hit. (on one of the recent blogs)

By releasing Hawk now, the Packers would acquire a net gain of only $2.25 million. As detailed, the Packers could wait until after June 1 and push Hawk's $3.2 million of prorated signing bonus to 2014 and, thus, be off the hook for Hawk's $5.45 million salary.

Was Wells better than Saturday? Yes, but Wells was injured most of 2012. Would that have happened if he was with the Packers? We'll never know, but you cannot discuss the Wells departure without discussing the fact that Wells was injured and has once again undergone knee surgery.

I disagree with you onthe Wells situation. I think it was a good move not to re-sign him for the $6 million per year that the Rams signed him for. I don't think Wells was worth that kind of money. If you had been talking about $1 million per year, then I agree with you. But Wells as going to strike it rich, and we couldn't afford it with our cap.

Now that doesn't mean I think Saturday wa a good signing. Obviously he wasn't.

Saturday had a great career and was a well respected Center in the NFL he was consistently good and I could imagine TT trusting him to continue. I thought it was a good pick up given his rep and I could imagine TT and MM surprised that his performance took that huge of a dive. It happens a player can play so amazingly well for so long and one season he nose dives. If Saturday had a good season I could suspect Saturday would still put in another season next year versus retiring.

Did you read my post word from word? Thought not. I clearly stated what TT and MM both thought entering the 2012 which is why he picked him up in the first place. Unfortunalty for the Packers his performance tanked and he knows this which is why he is no longer playing in the NFL and retired.

This is a very odd article. TT tried to replace Clifton with a 1st round draft pick but Sherrod got injured. Do you replace a 12 year vet with an older player? Wells was replaced with Saturday (an older player) but it didn't work out, then turned to a younger player. Woodson played Safety much of last year Hayward is strictly a CB and few people thought he was replacing Woodson when he showed up. Collins was injured and TT didn't try to replace him with anyone younger. Collins might still be a Packer without the neck problem.

Spot on. Regardless I think the return of Sherrod and Bulaga will improve our offensive line.

Regarding the Saturday deal is that I too was persuaded into thinking with Saturday our Oline will be fine with his rep. However we all can agree that turned out not the way we liked it. EDS did a great job coming in and replacing him. Hayward did in fact replace Woodson especially when the coaching staff pushed him to the safety position and to be honest that worked out nicely.

Ora85 I think we would of had a very better chance on getting to the Super Bowl last season in 2011 with Collins its sad such a great player with great potential has to go out like that. Reminds me of Sterling Sharp and how would he have impacted the Packers if he never had gotten hurt. GO PACK GO